Introduction

This blog is intended to be a record of the thoughts, opinions, beliefs and understandings that together congeal to form my personal religious philosophy.

The name "The Bronze Gate" comes from an H.P. Lovecraft story titled "Ex Oblivione", H.P. Lovecraft being an early 20th century horror and science fiction writer who's work (usually) had its foundation in his philosophy of mechanistic materialism. The bronze gate of the story was a mysterious doorway about which many fables had been written, some telling of exotic wonders, others of unutterable horrors lying beyond, the only consensus amongst the tales being that whomever crossed through the gate could not return.
The protagonist does what is necessary to unlock the mysterious gate, and upon entering discovers that beyond the doorway lies Oblivion, non-existence, the infinite void of death.

I named the blog after the gate of the story because of the significant role Oblivion plays in my own religious philosophy. Other facets of which include; Buddhist influences, nihilism, Lovecraft's mechanistic materialism and Cosmicism, Gnosticism and various other bits and pieces from the world's literature, religions and philosophies.

At first glance this may all seem pessimistic and depressing, but I feel that it is only through understanding our own intimate relationship with Oblivion and her related concepts, especially our own mortality and fragility, that we can truly come to appreciate our lives, overcome the various fantasies we generate to make us feel safe, and thus come to understand ourselves fully.

What you can expect from me are posts discussing various aspects of philosophy and world religions, sometimes politics and the news if I'm in the mood, reviews of books and films that I think are important or interesting, and (despite this very, and deliberately, dry introduction) my own brand of unusual (read disturbing) humour. ;)

Please feel free to comment on any of my posts, or e-mail me if you're not comfortable with the public nature of comments. Be aware though that all spam, proselytizing and any personal attacks aimed at myself or other commenters will be deleted at my discretion, and if you catch me on a bad day I'll grass you up too.

Thanks for reading this introduction, and I hope you enjoy my blog.

Ceryx.